REPORT - Q1 solar corporate funding jumps to USD 3.2bn

Image by Mercom (mercomcapital.com).

April 11 (Renewables Now) - The solar sector raised total of USD 3.2 billion (EUR 3bn) in corporate funding in the first quarter (Q1) of 2017, including venture capital/private equity (VC/PE), debt and public market financing.

According to the latest report by Mercom Capital Group, corporate funding doubled quarter-on-quarter and grew by 15% year-on-year. The improvement was largely due to a rise in debt financing activity. Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity was also strong, and solar public companies also had “a good first quarter”, said Mercom CEO Raj Prabhu.

All in USD million

Q1 2017

Q4 2016

Q1 2016

VC/PE, corporate
venture capital

585

329

406

Public market financing

461

615

94

Announced debt financing

2,200

610

2,300

Announced large-scale
project funding

2,600

3,000

1,400

Residential and
commercial solar funds

630

1,500

1,000

TOTAL corporate funding

3,200

1,600

2,800

Most of the VC funding in the quarter, or USD 548 million, was secured by solar downstream companies. That segment also led M&A activity with 20 of the 29 transaction in Q1 involving downstream firms.

Mercom also said there were 49 large-scale solar project acquisitions in January-March, down from 73 in the preceding quarter, and 50 a year before. About 7.4 GW of solar projects were acquired, including nearly 1 GW by yieldcos.